Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The Unusual Baobab Trees (10 pics)

The Unusual Baobab Trees
Baobab or Upside-Down Tree grows in Africa and Australia. The legend says that after it was planted by God it kept moving, so God replanted it upside down. These trees can reach heights of 5 to 30 metres (16 to 98 ft) and have trunk diameters of 7 to 11 metres (23 to 36 ft).

Baobab tree is famous for its unusual proportions. This is one of the thickest tree in the world - with an average circumference of the trunk 10.9 meters, height of 18-25 m (in the "Guinness Book of Records" for 1991 describes the baobab tree, which had a 54.5 m in circumference). At the top of the trunk is divided into thick, almost horizontal branches forming a large, up to 38 m in diameter, crown. In the dry season in winter, when the baobab clears leaves, he takes a curious form of the tree roots growing up. Life expectancy of the baobab is controversial - they do not tree rings, which can reliably calculate the age. Performed by the method of radiocarbon analysis (14C) counts showed more than 5500 years for a tree with a diameter of 4,5 m, although more conservative estimates baobabs live "only" 1000 years.(source)